The Critics Ate Deconstructed Chicken Pot Pie, Scones, and Bibimbap This Week

A Two-in-One Night Out

For The Improper Bostonian, MC Slim JB finds a lot to enjoy at Back Bay Beats, which recently opened in a new Berklee School of Music building — the food “mostly delivers” and the music (by current and former students) “never fails to impress.” Bonus: The room is acoustically well-designed, with the music audible but not deafening and “generous” table spacing allowing for low conversations that don’t disrupt other guests from listening to the performance. Some highlights on the menu include “terrific” pork-belly rillettes, an “absolutely sensational” deconstructed chicken pot pie, and, in general, “mostly vivid and very good” vegetable dishes.

Blissful Cafe Vibes

In a “quick bite” for The Boston Globe, Kara Baskin checks out “a cute café in a tranquil corner of Cambridge” — the newly opened NOCA Provisions. The scene is “blissed out,” and there’s a server “who radiates espresso-generated good vibes.” Try the “not too strong and not too sweet” house drink, the espresso fizz, and a carrot ginger scone.

A Hidden Gem Inside a Hidden Gem

For the DIG, Marc Hurwitz heads to Cho Cho’s inside Cambridge’s Porter Exchange; it’s a Korean restaurant in a food hall that otherwise features Japanese food. Highlights include the “delicious” maandu gook, a dumpling soup; okdol bibimbap, which is served in a stone bowl and continues “sizzling as you eat it”; and yuk gae jang, a broth “that seems to get more and more spicy as you eat it.” Despite Cho Cho’s focus on Korean food, there’s also “an excellent take on pad thai” with some sweetness from cashews (rather than peanuts).

• Eat to the Beat [IB]
• Quick Bite: NOCA Provisions Has a Happy, Healthy Vibe [BG]
• Cho Cho’s, Cambridge [DIG]